Red Sanctuary
by Ingnited Tiger
Summary: Fallow a low ranking assassin through a chain of events, where things change making his life more difficult. He is watched by the well known assassin, Altair.


The skies turned a soft pink, mixed with blues and purples, showing the first signs of dawn in the Holy Lands. Masyaf just started to wake up, movement within the walls from the merchants who began to set up their stands. Only after they began to set up, the locals had been drawing out of their homes to do early morning chores, as to collect water for whatever their plans were for it. Just outside the walls of Masyaf, caught the eyes of the guards, who, of course were of the brotherhood. A gray and white specked horse trotted its way towards the city, its owner's head down as if he was sleeping, and both hands on the reigns. From the pale gray coloring of the clothing, a low ranked assassin made his way back home. From the looks of it, he had been riding all night long to get to Masyaf.

The horse slowed its pace to a slow walk and stopped just in front of the gates. It lowered its head, as if it too, were tired from the long night's run. One of the assassin guards looked at the new comer, and then glanced at the other guard, then back again.

"How was the mission brother?" the guard asked. The assassin's bowed head lifted slightly, as if just waking up. Half his face is covered with a light light gray mask, and the rest of his face, shadowed by his hood.

"The target had been slain." he said in an exhausted voice, but if his mask were off, he would have a victorious smile.

"Excellent! Al Mualim will be expecting these words." the guard said, noticing the assassin having trouble trying to stay awake.

"How was the journey back home?" the other guard asked.

"Long." is all that came out of the assassin's lips before he attempted to get off his horse, nearly falling but regaining his step and led the horse into the stable before slinking back out past the two guards.

"I do believe Al Mualim can wait a few more hours brother, sleep on it before you go to see him." The previous guard said as the assassin walked by.

"Alright. Safety and peace brother."

"Safety and peace." they both replied back, and resumed their post. The assassin made his way through the small city, walking up the hill towards the stronghold the brotherhood stayed at, but stopped beside a small house, and pushed the door open. In side is basically a one room house, with a bed, and a bookcase with very little books perched on the shelves. In the room, on the far wall is a small window, about two by one feet. In one of the corners a chair sits, just a tad dusty. The whole room's color is a light tan to light brown, the floor being made up of stone. Something simple. The assassin walked in, closed the door behind him and pulling back his hood and pulling down his mask. The assassin himself were dressed in a low ranking robe, but not being too dark of a gray showing his rank higher than a novice. He is about 5.6 feet tall, dark dark near black brown short hair that slightly spiked up naturally but stayed flat around the back of his head. He had dark brown eyes, and on the corner near his right eye is a sliver of a scar.

He had flopped on the bed, completely exhausted from the nights journey. Face down on the bed, he went to sleep within the next few breaths. It had seemed like a five minute nap to him when he was basically slapped in the back of the head.

"Wake up you lazy bum" jokingly growled a voice, "You have been asleep for five hours. Wake up wake up wake up. I _will_ get a bucket of water in here." Narrowing his eyes, the new comer kept whacking the back of the assassins head lightly.

"Leave me be." the assassin growled, his voice muffled by a pillow.

"I swear, Aliuqa, you are the laziest man I know... hehehe the laziest mini assassin I know at that." the new comer said, sitting on Aliuqa's bed. He had just earned a hand to his neck when Aliuqa shot up from his size being made fun of.

"You know very well I dislike my size being an amusment to you Caliem." Aliuqa growled. Caliem choked a laugh, and grabbed Aliuqa's arm and pried his hand free from his neck.

"Thats the quickest I _ever_ seen you move. Maybe I should mock your height more often." Caliem joked, rubbing the thin beard on his chin.

"You do and I'll ask Al Mualim if you could be my next assassination target." Aliuqa growled narrowing his dark eyes. Caliem laughed again.

"Wouldn't be afraid of your shrimp." he said, mocking Aliuqa's expression. The short assassin palmed his face, shaking his head as he went.

"You would be dead if we weren't friends." Aliuqa said, giving a smile. He took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh, looking back longingly at his pillow.

"Stop looking at your pillow and come on. Al Mualim needs to hear of your success." Caliem chirped and practically marched out of the small hut. As much as he wanted to go back to sleep, Aliuqa pulled his hood back over his head and fallowed his friend out the door more sluggishly. Aliuqa had reached the top of the hill when he spotted someone familiar. Of course, everyone knew the best assassin in the brotherhood. Altair had been standing in the same spot for more than an hour. Perhaps he had been set on guard duty? Aliuqa was about to ask him why he had been standing there when Caliem came jogging towards him.

"Damn you are slow. Going to have to drag you there if you don't hurry up. Come _on_!" Caliem growled. Grabbing Aliuqa's arm and half pulled half dragged him through the strongholds gates. Aliuqa giving Altair one last glance before he disappeared through the gates.

Aliuqa stood at the bottom of the staircase looking up. Caliem had been asked to try out his hand with swords. Aliuqa didn't have a great talent when it came to swords, matter of fact, he sucked at it. After being glared at by another assassin, Aliuqa made his way up the stairs and towards the desk where Al Maulim always stayed at.

"I heard your mission was a success." he cooed, not looking at Aliuqa, but busy with a few volumes of books, having one set in one arm while he traced over the spines of the books on the shelf with his free hand, "Tell me how it went."

"It went smoothly master. The target had been slain without problem. His guards were unaware of my presence within the walls of his chamber." Aliuqa said, bowing his head respectfully. Al Maulim satd down the volumes of books he had in his arms and rested both hands on them.

"Then your brothers were correct. Your first major assassination, carried it out like the others, good job." the master said, pulling a book from the pile and opening it giving a dismissive wave of his hand, "You may go now child."

"Yes master." Aliuqa said, bowing his head before he left. He nearly beamed from the masters praise. One of the reasons was that it never involved his size in the conversations. Aliuqa nearly collided with Altair when he approched the entrance. The smaller assassin took a step back and looked up at Altair.

"S-sorry brother." Aliuqa said, stammering over his words. Altair gazed at him for a moment and then stepped past him.

"Nothing to apalogize for, safety and peace brother." Altair said before retreating through the doors. Aliuqa looked after him and then looked forward at the training ring. Caliem had been duking it out with a trainee. The teacher had been yelling at his student about how he stood with his sword. The trainee began to have troubles concetraiting on fighting. When the trainee went forward for a quick attack, Caliem blocked it with his own blade, pulling the sword up and around, knocking it out of the trainee's hands and shoving him forward with his shoulder. The trainee landed with a loud thud, and had a boot on his chest when he is pinned by Caliem and looked up to see the blades point barely inches away from his nose. Caliem, of course, beamed with pride.

"You shouldn't have tossed your weapon around like that! How many times to I have to tell you, look for an opening to take your target down. I saw many openings but you _still_ attacked without sync in your steps!" The teacher scolded his student. The trainee blinked and looked at his teacher and then at Caliem again. By this time, Caliem had shelthed his sword and had been offering an open hand to help the student up. He accepted it and, despite being scolded, bowed his head respectfully to Caliem and jumped over the fence and scurried over to the other trainies. The teacher had begun to cast disapproving glares at his student and then looked over and noticed Aliuqa leaning forward on the fence, watching or had been watching the spar.

"Aliuqa! You don't seem busy. How about you teach my dim-witted students how to fight. Of course your opponent will be Caliem." The teacher called over, beconing Aliuqa over. Aliuqa walked over to him and thought about it. Of course it would be revenge from the rude awakening Caliem gave him earlier. A grin spread across his face and he gave a curt nod.

"Of course! It will give me pleasure to beat the all so prideful Caliem." Aliuqa said, casting a 'you're in for it' look at Caliem who had come over, resting his arms on the fence and smiling at Aliuqa deviously.

"I'm not scared of you little man." he said, returning the look at Aliuqa. The teacher laughed.

"You two seem eager to take each other out! I wish my students were more like that." he said casting more disapproving glares at them, "Students! Gather around the ring and watch these two fight. You might learn something. Pray that you do." he said as Aliuqa jumped over the fence. The trainees gathered around the ring to watch. Further up, the guards talk amonst themselves, gesturing towards the ring and began to watch. As did some of Masyaf's citizens.

Caliem drew out his sword, and looked at his friend with narrowed eyes and a grin on his face.

"You think you can beat me shrimp?" he cooed.

"I _know_ I can beat you." Aliuqa growled, taking out a dagger. Caliem laughed.

"You still can't use a sword?"

"You know I can't weild a sword cuz of the weight of the blade..." it just occured to him that he had been insulting his own size.

"Haha, I didn't say a word about your height, you did that." Caliem chuckled, getting into a fighting stance.

"Just shut up and fight." Aliuqa growled getting into a fighting stance as well. Caliem was the first to start the spar, swing his sword to the left of Aliuqa. The small assassin knew Caliem to well, he always started out that way so he jumped back to avoid the blade and jumped forward swinging his dagger at Caliem. The bigger assassin ducked under the blade and shouldered Aliuqa. The shove disbalanced him greatly and he fell over when he went to dodge the series of quick attacks Caliem had been giving him. Aliuqa hit the ground hard and didn't have time to recover and rolled away from the blade. AFter the third roll, Caliem ran at Aliuqa. Thinking quickly, Aliuqa threw his dagger at Caliems booted feet, making him jump in surprise and falling towards Aliuqa. Boot meeting his chest, ALiuqa tossed Caliem over head and somersaulted forward to grab his dagger and jumped to his feet quickly. Spinning on one foot to look at Caliem who had been getting up slowly, trying to recover from what Aliuqa had pulled off. He made took this to his advantage and sprinted towards Caliem, jumping and thrusting both arms forward, one hold a dagger the other free. The free arm wrapped around Caliems neck while the dagger was helded just below his chin. Aliuqas legs wrapped around Caliems sides to stay where he is.

"Victory is mine." Aliuqa hissed into Caliems ear. The bigger assassin clenched both his teeth and the hilt of his sword.

"Not yet." he growled back, elbowing ALiuqa in the gut, making him fall off him. Before Caliem could turn to claim his victory, Aliuqa kicked him in the back of the knees, causing him to fall forward onto his knees.

"I am _not_ going down alone!" he snarled and tackled Caliem, making him fall forward. Aliuqa grabbed one of Caliems arms, forbidding him to retrieve his lost sword and putting the dagger's point to his neck.

"I will repeat, victory is _mine_." Aliuqa cooed.

The teacher laughed when the trainees cheered for Aliuqas apparent victory. The crowd that had formed around the ring clapped for the victories assassin.

"Well done Aliuqa! You too Caliem. Now students, thats how you fight. Hope you learned well from this spar." he said, clapping his hands together. Aliuqa laughed again.

"And you thought I couldn't beat you. Revenge tastes so sweet." he said, putting the dagger back in its shealthe and getting off of Caliem. He helped his friend up and patted his shoulder.

"Though so kept knocking me to the ground. What were you trying to accomplish?" Aliuqa asked.

"Very simple. You. Are. A. Shrimp." Caliem said slowly and then pulled Aliuqa's hood over his eyes and jumped over the fence shouting "Fear the almight assassin shrimp!"

"I'm going to get him." Aliuqa growled and picked up Caliems lost sword and jumped over the fence and chased after him only walking.

Apon everyone watching, Altair had been observing the sparring match. He had been impressed with Aliuqa's techniques, despite him being smaller than the average man. Resting his arms on the fence and watching the young assassin make his way through the crowd after his overly hyper-active friend. Perhaps Altair could teach him a thing or two.


End file.
